The Muslim Brotherhood has not yet had the last word
Islamist movement may have suffered some blows over the past few months, but it’s clearly not going down without a fight
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAvi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
Sunday’s events across Egypt, in which at least 51 people were killed, mostly in Cairo, largely did away with the notion of a “united Egypt.”
Yet another round of violent clashes broke out between those who back the Muslim Brotherhood, and the army and its supporters, this time on a main national holiday, the 6th of October — marking the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Mideast war with Israel, which the Egyptians consider a victory.
Over the past few days, the military repeatedly tried to warn Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other Islamist streams not to test the patience of the army ahead of the holiday. Members of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s top Sunni Islamic body, who identify with the military regime, cautioned that protests on the national holiday are harmful to Islam, and even published a fatwa on the matter. Egypt’s security establishment also warned that those caught protesting would be charged with espionage.
Nonetheless, thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters took to the streets — revealing either bravery or stupidity, depending on who you ask — and clashed with the police and the army. And indeed, the military’s response was especially violent, with forces using live fire on protesters. Not surprisingly, the bloodshed is not expected to lead the way to the stabilization of the stormy political environment.
In many ways, the clashes Sunday were expected. What’s surprising is that since Egypt’s second revolution in July, in which Mohammed Morsi was ousted and the army came to power, protests by the Muslim Brotherhood have been quite limited. Perhaps the arrest of the movement’s top brass had something to do with the quiet that has prevailed in recent weeks.
But it was always clear that the movement, which has wide popular support, was not about to go down waving a white flag of surrender. The Muslim Brotherhood made clear Sunday that the army may arrest its members, leaders and hundreds of its supporters, but its cannot ignore its popularity among the Egyptian people.
Over the past few months, the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of political Islam has suffered several blows. First, it lost power in Egypt. Second, the movement’s popularity in Jordan has weakened if not been put down by the Hashemite monarchy. Third, Muslim Brothers in the Syrian opposition have lost their standing to a stronger al-Qaeda. Fourth, Hamas is also losing its standing in Gaza in light of the tension with the current Egyptian regime. Fifth, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of the Brothers, is facing a popular protest, while another ally, North Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir, has also seen violent demonstrations against his rule in the country.
And yet the Muslim Brotherhood is far from finished. Sunday underlined that.
The Times of Israel Community.